33 YEARS SINCE THE BRUTAL MURDER OF 12-YEAR-OLD SLOBODAN STOJANOVIĆ MARKED

ZVORNIK, JULY 27 /SRNA/ – A divine liturgy has been held today at the Church of Saint Deacon Habakkuk in Drinjača to mark 33 years since the brutal murder of 12-year-old Slobodan Stojanović in Kamenica near Zvornik, whom the Serbian Orthodox Church declared a Holy New Martyr of Donja Kamenica.

Slobodan was killed in July 1992 by Elfeta Veseli, a member of the Sabotage Unit of the Joint Command of the so-called Army of BiH in Liplje and Kamenica. The murder occurred when Slobodan returned to his village, Kamenica, to retrieve his dog, after fleeing the area with his parents. Father Marko Danojlović, the priest at the Church of Saint Deacon Habakkuk, said that the message from the Divine Liturgy, from Slobodan’s grave, and from every site of Serbs’ suffering is a message of love. "But those who should ask for forgiveness have yet to take the first step toward us. So, the message is that we are still waiting for them to make that step, which is important for coexistence in BiH, particularly in Republika Srpska," Father Danojlović told the press. He asked representatives of the international community in BiH to convey to their superiors that they should come, listen, and hear the Serb side of the story. The priest also asked if any representative of another ethnic group, whose compatriots committed crimes against innocent Serbs, had ever come to a site of Serbs’ suffering in BiH to seek forgiveness. The mayor of Srebrenica, Miloš Vučić, said that out of the many crimes committed against Serbs in Podrinje and Republika Srpska, this one against Slobodan Stojanović is among the few that reached a legal conclusion and resulted in a conviction - albeit one that is inadequate. Slobodan was killed after returning to his village Kamenica to untie his dog, which had been left tethered in the yard. His body was found in a pit in the hamlet of Bajrići in Novo Selo near Zvornik. He was identified through DNA analysis and buried in the cemetery in Drinjača. According to forensic findings by pathologist Zoran Stanković, the child was brutally murdered - his belly had been slashed in the shape of a cross, and he had visible head injuries. Elfeta Veseli was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, in December 2019, the Appellate Panel of the Court of BiH increased her sentence to 13 years. According to the Republika Srpska Research Centre of War, War Crimes, at the outbreak of the civil war in BiH, Veseli joined a unit heded by Naser Orić and participated in sabotage operations conducted by Muslim forces in the Podrinje region. After the war, she went to Switzerland, where she spent 20 years evading justice.